5631. NATIONAL CURRENCY, Redemption.—
Treasury notes of small as well
as high denomination, bottomed on a tax
which would redeem them in ten years, would
place at our disposal the whole circulating
medium of the United States; a fund of
credit sufficient to carry us through any probable
length of war. A small issue of such
paper is now commencing. It will immediately
supersede the bank paper; nobody receiving
that now but for the purposes of the
day, and never in payments which are to lie
by for any time. In fact, all the banks
having declared they will not give cash in exchange
for their own notes, these circulate
merely because there is no other medium of
exchange. As soon as the treasury notes get
into circulation, the others will cease to hold
any competition with them. I trust that another
year will confirm this experiment, and
restore this fund to the public, who ought
never more to permit its being filched from
them by private speculators and disorganizers
of the circulation.—
To W. H. Crawford. Washington ed. vi, 419.
Ford ed., ix, 503.
(M.
Feb. 1815)
